Ken Marino Will Star in ‘The Gates’ Pilot for NBC

Ken Marino, star of The State, Party Down, Childrens Hospital, Burning Love and about a million other wonderful things, has signed on to star in a comedy pilot called The Gates for NBC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show is based on the UK comedy of the same name, which follows parents and staff navigating the student drop-off line for an elementary school. Marino will play Mark, a lovable nice guy married to a type-A wife (Kathleen Rose Perkins, House of Lies). The Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi has also joined on as Trevor, a super-driven Yale educated dad with high-achieving, competitive kids. Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, writers for King of Queens and creators of ‘Til Death, are writing the pilot adaptation. The original British version of The Gates debuted its five-episode first season last year, but the US version will probably have more than five episodes in its first season if it gets picked up because networks here don’t bother with those tiny Red coat season orders.